Over the course of her Pilot Project funded by Women’s Health Research at Yale, Carolyn Fredericks, MD, assistant professor of neurology, forged interdisciplinary partnerships to propel her research forward.
An interdisciplinary research partnership is one that integrates multiple scientific and other academic disciplines, areas of expertise, or fields of study, to address a question that is designed to respond to a health issue. This is done to take on complex health questions, yield a more comprehensive understanding of the problem, and evoke a more effective response.
At Women’s Health Research at Yale, building interdisciplinary partnerships is one of our initiatives, and encouraging and often facilitating this process in our pilot funding is an ideal way to bring disciplines together.
Here are some of the interdisciplinary partnerships that inform and advance Fredericks’s work in the Fredericks Lab.
Brain Biomedical Imaging
“Our collaboration with Dr. Fredericks bridges the gap between preclinical and clinical research,” says Francesca Mandino, PhD, associate research scientist at the Yale Magnetic Resonance Research Center.
The partnership uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess brain activity in mice that enables the researchers to draw parallels to human brain biology and the underlying cellular mechanisms for disorders. The collaborative efforts aim to uncover crucial insights into the brain networks affected by Alzheimer’s disease with a focus on sex-based differences.
“Interdisciplinary collaboration fosters a comprehensive approach to research that transcends single-discipline limitations. By integrating diverse methodologies and perspectives, we achieve a more holistic understanding of complex conditions – such as Alzheimer’s,” said Mandino.
She notes interdisciplinary work accelerates the translation of findings from bench to bedside, enhances innovation, and fosters the cross-fertilization of ideas, ultimately driving scientific advancements that can be applied in real-world settings.
Psychiatry
In 2022, after listening to a lecture by Associate Professor of Psychiatry Albert Powers, MD, PhD, about the neuroscience of auditory hallucinations, Fredericks and Powers met to discuss the potential synergy in their work and interests despite hailing from the two different disciplines of neurology and psychiatry.
Their conversations then led them to pursue funding from the Yale Center for Brain & Mind Health to explore the neural architecture of visual hallucinations that are common to both Lewy Body disease, a type of dementia typically studied in neurology, and to psychosis, studied in psychiatry. These collaborations increase the opportunity to understand what happens in the brain that causes similar symptoms and can result in opportunities for more effective treatments of the symptom in different disorders. Their proposed study was funded in 2023, and research is underway.
“Interdisciplinary collaboration is important because it opens the door to new ways of thinking and new methods in studying disorders. Interdisciplinary partnerships are powerful as they promote asking new questions and approaching a problem in different ways,” reflects Powers.
Biostatistics
Applying statistical methods to the analysis of health data is at the heart of biostatistics. Fredericks has long collaborated with Biostatistics Associate Professor Yize Zhao, PhD, to better understand the relationship of neuronal communications and neurodegeneration.
“Carolyn Fredericks has a special interest and expertise in the influence of sex on health, and I have learned a lot from her in terms of a clinical and, specifically, a neurological view of the health challenges we’re investigating. As a consequence, I can provide the kind of analytic techniques that are designed to better answer her questions,” said Zhao.
Zhao describes interdisciplinary partnerships as “truly essential” in driving toward the cause of a problem more rapidly and effectively.
Interdisciplinary Partnerships
Women’s Health Research at Yale’s interdisciplinary research partnerships bring together Yale faculty from a variety of fields to investigate health conditions specifically affecting women, more prevalent in women, or affecting women differently than men. Collaborating investigators with diverse specialties, perspectives, and expertise strive to answer real-world health questions more effectively, together. Through these interdisciplinary partnerships, the necessary data to improve the lives of women can be realized.